Who were the Bokkenrijders?

For everybody who's new to our website, we've written a short introduction to the Bokkenrijders.

The Bokkenrijders, which translates to “buck riders” or “goat riders”, were a criminal gang in the area of Limburg (southern Netherlands and a small part of Germany and Belgium) during the 18^th century. The exact truth is unknown and there’s also a difference between the legends and the historical reality. We’ll briefly talk about both.

The historical reality

During the 18^th century, there was a lot of poverty and crime in Limburg; several robberies and murders were committed in farmhouses, taverns and churches. Hundreds of people were suspected to have committed these crimes and they were arrested, put on trial and often sentenced to death. The government and court system believed that these people were all part of a huge gang that had committed many atrocities, but some of the suspects’ confessions didn’t make sense or were almost certainly made up, leading modern historians to believe that many or all of the convicts may have been innocent.

The legends and myths

The 18th-century government and court system, like many people during that time, believed that the Bokkenrijders were a huge, secret, criminal gang. Not only that; they believed that these people had been sworn to secrecy and loyalty by an oath and that they had formed a pact with the devil. Because of this, they were called “Bokkenrijders”; bucks or goats are frequently associated with the devil. The term Bokkenrijders had already been used in folklore about devils and ghosts. Later on during the mass trials, a few suspects began confessing that they had flown through the air, riding on goats. This version of the story is the most well-known one, and many people in the Netherlands only know about the Bokkenrijders through comics, books or amusement park attractions that heavily dramatize the story. But it’s not the only version of the Bokkenrijders’ history; there are several theories about this mysterious gang.

Our goal

Project Bokkenrijders is a group of volunteers that aims to gather information about the Bokkenrijders based on historical sources, to make the story available for the greater public. This means that we focus on the historical reality instead of the legends and the myths. We believe that the Bokkenrijders trials are an important, but often overlooked part of the history of Limburg, and we would like to make the story more well-known to draw attention to this part of the cultural heritage and history of Limburg.